Pavia

Although the Lombards had been settled in the country for nearly two hundred years and had become Christians, they were still a rude, half-barbarous people, and an implacable hostility existed between them and the papal see.

Rome lay between the Lombard kingdom on the north, of which the capital was Pavia, and the great Lombard duchies of Benevento and Spoleto on the south.

When the dukes were in rebellion, 739, Rome had aided them, and the Lombard king Liutprand threatened to take vengeance on the city by annexing it to his dominions.

Where could the pope, Gregory III, turn for help? The exarch, he was the last, was powerless.

In the pontificate of Hadrian I, 772 to 795, Rome was again threatened by the Lombard king Desiderius, and once more a passionate cry for help was made to the king of the Franks.

Charles crossed the Alps with a powerful force.

Pavia was taken after an obstinate resistance.

Desiderius vanished into a monastery, the native line of Lombard kings came to an end, and northern Italy became a part of the Frankish dominions.

In the spring of 753, the envoys of Pippin brought the desired invitation and a letter in which there was probably some promise of protection against the Lombards.

Just about the same time, a messenger, the Silentiarius John, arrived from the emperor Constantine V desiring the pope to repair to the court of Pavia and solicit King Astolph to grant the restoration of Ravenna to the empire.

The pope had sent more than one urgent message to the emperor imploring his protection and this futile commission was the only reply.

The form of the dispatch showed that the emperor still regarded the pope as his subject, but its substance was certainly some justification to Stephen for that transfer of his allegiance from Constantine to Pippin, which had now begun to present itself to his mind as a possible way of escaping from his difficulties.

In itself, the imperial commission was not unwelcome, since it necessitated a safe conduct from Astolph for the journey to Pavia.

On the 13th of October, 753, Pope Stephen set forth from Rome.

Many of the Romans followed him out of the gates, weeping and wailing and striving in vain to prevent him from undertaking the journey.

But though weak in body, he had a stout heart and was not to be turned from his purpose.

The Teutonic ascendancy, overthrown in the overthrow of the Gothic kingdom, was again established in Italy.

Lombard kings reigned and legislated and administered at Pavia, as Theodoric had done at Ravenna and Verona.

And the kingdom of the Lombards, set up in the very home of the Latin race, took for two hundred years, from 568 to 774, the place which the Gothic kingdom, founded by the genius of Theodoric, had only been able to keep for sixty.

But Italy was never completely subdued, like Gaul, Spain, or Britain.

To the last there were three capitals, centers of national feeling and influence.

Besides the Lombard capital of Pavia and the Greek capital of Ravenna, there was the Italian capital of Rome, nominally acknowledging the Greek emperor, but for the most part isolated and growing under the popes into a sense of exceptional independence.

The Latin population of Italy was more obstinate than those of Gaul and Spain in its aversion to foreigners and in its national pride.

The Lombards are said to have been harshest and most cruel of the barbarian conquerors of Italy.

Now although Charles seems to have had similar or rather just the same grounds for declaring war that his father had, the war itself differed from the preceding one alike in its difficulties and its issue.

Pepin, to be sure, after besieging King Astolf a few days in Pavia, had compelled him to give hostages, to restore to the Romans the cities and castles that he had taken, and to make oath that he would not attempt to seize them again.

But Charles did not cease, after declaring war, until he had exhausted King Desiderius by a long siege.

773, and forced him to surrender at discretion, driven his son Adalgus, the last hope of the Lombards, not only from his kingdom, but from all Italy, 774, restored to the Romans all that they had lost, subdued Rodgaus, duke of Frele, 776, who was plotting revolution, reduced all Italy to his power, and set his son Pepin as king over it, 781.

Boethius himself, amid the general applause, delivered the public speech in the king's honor usual on such occasions.

Within a year, he was a solitary prisoner at Pavia, stripped of honors, wealth, and friends, with death hanging over him, and a terror worse than death.

in the fear lest those dearest to him should be involved in the worst results of his downfall.

It is in this situation that the opening of the consolation of philosophy brings Boethius before us.

O my judges, well do ye deserve that no one should hereafter be convicted of a fault like mine.

Footnote.

The distance from Rome to Pavia, the place of Bertius' imprisonment, is 455 Roman miles.

Yet even my very accusers saw how honourable was the charge they brought against me, and, in order to overlay it with some shadow of guilt, they falsely asserted that in the pursuit of my ambition I had stained my conscience with sacrilegious acts— and yet thy spirit indwelling in me has driven from the chamber of my soul all lust of earthly success and with thine eye ever upon me there could be no place left for sacrilege for thou didst daily repeat in my ear and instil into my mind the pythagorean maxim follow after god It was not likely, then, that I should covet the assistance of the vilest spirits, when thou wert moulding me to such an excellence as should conform me to the likeness of God.

Eppure, mentre Carlo scrive queste parole, mentre si strugge fino alle ossa per avere la pace, Francesco, il cavaliere, è sceso di persona in Italia per combattere e tenersi Milano, impero o meno.

Per farlo deve espugnare Pavia, che però è tenuta salda da una guarnigione di Carlo.

Ma la sorte guarda a questo suo imperatore, che proprio questo giorno compie gli anni, lo guarda struggersi disperato e gli sorride.

Arrivano i rinforzi.

Ha perso troppi uomini e alcuni dei suoi mercenari non vogliono fare la stessa fine, per questo gli voltano le spalle e lo abbandonano sul campo di battaglia.

Ed è a questo punto che comincia il massacro.

Diecimila uomini cadono a Pavia e anche lo sfortunato cavallo di Francesco non sopravvive.

Lui, disperato, però continua a combattere finché un nemico non lo riconosce tra la polvere.

The tale.

Whilom there was dwelling in Lombardy a worthy knight that was born at Pavia, in which he lived in great prosperity.

And forty years a wife-less man was he, and followed aye his bodily delight on women, whereas was his appetite, as do these fools that be seculars.

And when that he was passed sixty years, were it for holiness or for dotage, I cannot say, but such a great courage had this knight to be a wedded man, that day and night he did all that he can to espy where that he might wedded be, praying our Lord to grant him that he might once knowen of that blissful life that is betwixt a husband and his wife.